Motivation, or the Lack Thereof

So I'm thinking about motivation and progress today. I've made the 10-minute mark on my twice-daily walks, I'm rather proud of that. It's obviously still short of what most would consider an "actual" workout, but it's double what I started with! There's no way I'd have been able to walk briskly (well, briskly for me) for 10 minutes without stopping before I started this.

Unfortunately, being able to exercise longer doesn't really help with anything other than, well, exercising longer. There's not much effect on my life in general, which doesn't help much with my motivation. Having lost exactly nothing last week, my motivation is a bit low this week. I'm not quitting or anything, but it's harder to make myself go out and exercise and so on. I will be very, very happy when I can start seeing some positive effects in my daily life from this program. I don't really care what they are, as long as they're noticeable! Obviously, the end goals and motivations are summed up in the list of reasons I've got posted to the right of the page, but I'm a long, long way from achieving those.

Anyway, yesterday's intake...

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 8.49g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce, 1 cup frozen green beans - 11.47g
Dessert: Sugar-free Jell-O, 2 tbsp whipped cream - .8g
Sodium: 2713mg
Veggies: 9.18g
Total: 24.31g

Anticipating that I was going to make 375 yesterday, I had Chad take a set of "progress" pictures of me. I never did get a set of "before" pics done, so I guess those will have to stand in. I'm going to try to do pics at every 25 lb increment so that I'll be able to see if there are visible changes. When I was on Atkins the first time several years ago, I lost over 60 lbs, and although other people could see a difference in me, I never could. I know I was smaller. Some of my clothes were too big, I was able to buy smaller sizes in the store...but I couldn't see it. It's amazing how demotivational the inability to actually see that change is. I'm hoping that the pictures will help me with that. Once I've got a few sets of pics done, I'll post them on the blog so you guys can see. Well, assuming that the weight loss starts up again, I will.

A Big, Fat Zero

Hey everybody...yes, I know, I've been slacking on my posts badly this past week. My only excuse is how incredibly yucky I've been feeling with my medication withdrawal. It's been a little over a week now since I took my last dose of Effexor, and although I'm still having some background dizziness all the time and intermittent spells of worse dizziness, I'm doing much better than I was last Monday.

Anyway, today is Monday, and that means weigh-in day. As you've probably guessed from the title of this post, the result on the scale was a big, fat zero. So very, very frustrating! I stuck to my program like glue and did my walking twice a day every day except Thursday (I missed Thursday afternoon). Because I've got a week of meals to catch up on for the blog, I'm going to post just the carb totals today. I'm making a goal for this week to post every day, so tomorrow I'll be back to normal meal postings.

Tuesday - 23.80g
Wednesday - 23.43g
Thursday - 24.31g
Friday - 24.91g
Saturday - 24.40g
Sunday - 18.47g

So the results for the first two weeks of increasing to 25 grams per day are mixed. Last week, I lost 3 lbs, this week I lost nothing. I'm going to give the increased carbs one more week to stabilize, but if I don't lose next week, I guess it will be back to Induction for me. I really hope I do lose some. Well, I always hope I lose some, but it's been very nice to have those extra 5 carbs available, because it really increases my flexibility in food choices. Extra carbs or not, I'm really pretty surprised not to have lost any weight this week. In addition to my scheduled exercise, I've done my arm workout with my little 5-lb hand weight nearly every day.

I've also incorporated a lot more general movement into my day over the past week. Based on the article I linked the other day regarding spending most of your time sitting down being detrimental even with exercise as part of your life, I decided to start using a technique that's worked for me in the past to help get things done. I set my kitchen timer for 5 minutes, and work on whatever project or household chore needs to be done until the timer goes off. Then I set the timer for 10 minutes and rest/read/get on the computer/generally sit down until it starts beeping again, at which point I set it for 5 minutes and start the cycle over again. It's amazingly productive without making me feel overwhelmed or exhausted. I moved a lot more and got a lot of things done last week that I've been meaning to do for a long time...and I still didn't lose any weight. Frustrating!

Anyway, the timer's going to go off for my next 5-minute work session...I promise to post again tomorrow!

Another Dizzy Day

Well, yesterday was another nasty, dizzy day of withdrawal from Effexor. I forced myself to stick to the eating and exercise schedule, but it definitely wasn't easy. The food turned out a little odd...I was right on track with my carbs, but my calorie total was only 703. At least I was eating, though!

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled - 1.55g
Lunch: Tomato, cheese stick - 5.02g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: 6 oz ham steak, 3/4 cup frozen peas
Dessert: None
Sodium: 2156mg
Veggies: 14.53g
Total: 24.88g

Anyway, not much to talk about today, short post!

Weigh-In Day and the Weekend From Hell

Hey all, sorry I've been slacking on my posts this weekend. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but I've decided to get off my antidepressants. I've got several reasons for this decision. A couple of the lesser contributing factors are that some of the research I've done has indicated that this particular medication can contribute to weight gain, and that I'm really trying to reduce the number of chemicals I'm ingesting. The reason that really triggered it, though, is that I have a friend who has been on the same medication that I've been taking, which is Effexor. She's being switched to a different combination of meds, and the withdrawals she's been going through have been horrible. She's been on it considerably longer than I have, and I want to get off of it now, before my system becomes that dependent on it. I've been on one antidepressant or another for the last six years, but this one seems to be by far the worst as far as dependency and withdrawal.

Anyway, I began tapering down off of it last week, and I took my last half-pill on Saturday. And thus began the weekend from hell, which seems to have not noticed that it should be over, since it's now Monday and I still feel awful. Saturday I got to enjoy a screaming headache most of the day in addition to the dizziness, nausea, irritability, exhaustion, and inability to think that I've had all weekend and still have. Anything that makes you feel like this when you stop taking it isn't something I think I want to be putting into my body in the first place.

Feeling the way I have been for the last couple of days hasn't led to a great eating or exercise schedule either. I haven't gone over on my carbs or anything, but it's been a little weird. I missed my afternoon walk on Saturday, which means I've missed my goal for October as well. Anyway, meals for the weekend...

Friday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 8.42g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce, 1 1/3 cups frozen green beans - 12.97g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 2478mg
Veggies: 9g
Total: 24.94g

Saturday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: None
Snack: None
Dinner: 8 oz sausage, 1 cup sauerkraut - 20g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 4437mg
Veggies: 8g
Total: 21.55g

Sunday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: None
Snack: None
Dinner: 8 oz sausage, 1 cup sauerkraut - 20g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 4437mg
Veggies: 8g
Total: 21.55g

So although I haven't gone over my 25g daily, I also haven't exactly been sticking to schedule or eating healthily. Frankly, I'm just proud that I've eaten something and that I haven't fallen off my program. This morning's weigh-in showed a 3 lb. loss, so although the 5 carb increase I've been on this week hasn't resulted in more loss, it hasn't really resulted in less either. I'm a little disappointed that going off my meds doesn't seem to have resulted in additional loss, though.

An Odd Food Day

Yesterday was rather an odd food day. I didn't go over on my carbs, and I ate my meals on time, but they were...odd. Well, breakfast was normal, but...

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: 1/2 avocado - 1.57g
Snack: Tomato, cheese stick - 5.02g
Dinner: 8 oz smoked sausage, 1/2 cup sauerkraut - 16g
Dessert: Hard-boiled egg - .56g
Sodium: 3654mg (wow!)
Veggies: 9.79g
Total: 24.7g

I've always liked avocados, and they're great on carbs and good for you, so I bought a couple to eat. Apparently I only like avocados when they're included in other foods or transformed into guacamole. It took me the better part of an hour to eat half a sliced avocado, and by the time I was done, other food sounded utterly unappealing. I buffed up my snack to make up for my lack of a reasonable lunch, so that worked out ok, but then it was time for dinner. Sauerkraut and sausage...mmmm. Unfortunately, Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage turns out to have 1.5 carbs per ounce. Yikes! I definitely need to do some research into lower-carb sausage. Anyway, as a result of the carbishness of the sausage, dinner was a bit small. But hey, I didn't go over, and I ate on schedule, so it's not all bad!

25 Carbs

So far, the 25 carbs a day plan has been very, very nice...at least as far as letting me stretch a bit inside the confines of my program. We'll see on Monday how it goes on the scale. The freedom and flexibility to have just one extra tablespoon of dressing on my salad, an extra hard-boiled egg when I'm a little hungry, or a stir-fry with a variety of veggies for dinner is really, really nice. The funny part is that I didn't make it to my full 25g either day! My caloric intake has jumped up a bit, which was one of the goals. I was around 1500 calories each day, which still isn't up to recommendations, but it's closer than it was!

Tuesday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 6.99g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Beef and veggie stir-fry - 10.67g
Dessert: Hard-boiled egg - .56g
Sodium: 3712mg
Veggies: 12.68g
Total: 21.77g

Wednesday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 8.49g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Creamed chicken w/mushrooms, 1 1/3 cup frozen green beans - 11.39g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 1828mg
Veggies: 11.48g
Total: 23.43g

I want to touch on an interesting point that Barry brought up in the same message that triggered my rethinking about moving into Phase 2. He had read a news article that suggested that long periods of sitting, even with a period of exercise at some point during the day, can cause weight gain, organ problems, and other issues. While I wasn't able to find the exact article that he referenced, I did find one with a similar message here. I'm going to start trying to move around a little every half an hour or hour. It's certainly not going to hurt me any, and it just might help!

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

So yesterday was a rather frustrating day. Well, yesterday evening, mostly. I mentioned in my last post that I'm trying to include more fresh veggies in my program, both because it's recommended by Atkins to have 12-15g of vegetable carbs daily and because veggies are, well...good for you. I had a salad for lunch, a tomato for my snack, and ended up with 7.24g left to try to squeeze dinner in. Considering that the dinner recipes - from the Atkins cookbooks! - that I've been cooking have 6-10g each before I even add a vegetable on the side, that made finding something I could eat last night a tad difficult. I ended up with another salad. Now, I like salads, I really do...but a small salad for two meals in a row was just a bit unsatisfying, and I still didn't even make 12g of veggies!

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 6.99g
Snack: Tomato - 4.22g
Dinner: Salad - 6.92g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 1957mg
Veggies: 10.22g
Total: 19.68g

So what's the solution to this problem? The first thing that occurred to me was that perhaps I was piling too many things onto my salads. When I looked at the breakdown, however, 3g of the 7g in my salad was the lettuce itself, and 3g was the 2 tbsp. of salad dressing. The dressing carbs could be reduced to 2g if I used a different variety, and I sometimes do that, but the single carb gram freed up that way doesn't really help a whole lot.

As I was glaring in frustration at my carb tracker, I got a very timely email from Barry, who's given me a number of excellent suggestions already - thanks, Barry! He asked at what point I'll be able to add more carbs into my diet. My immediate mental response to that question was, "I won't be able to at all! When I was on Atkins before, I immediately stopped losing when I went off Phase 1!" However, as I really started considering the question, a couple of things occurred to me.

Firstly, I've had several people suggest that perhaps my weight loss is being slowed down by my not eating enough calories and sending my metabolism into starvation-mode. Although Atkins is not a calorie-based program, Fatsecret automatically tracks my calories consumed, and I'm averaging 900-1200 calories per day. Based on my weight, activity level, and so on, my recommended daily intake for weight loss is actually about double that. I haven't worried about it much since I'm eating every three hours and I'm rarely hungry unless I miss a meal or eat it late, but maybe I should actually be eating more. Interesting concept on a diet...

Secondly, when I was on Atkins before, my starting weight was about a hundred pounds less than my current weight. That's got to have an effect on my program, my weight loss, and everything else. It's entirely possible that I could move into Phase 2, in which I can add a few more carbs, without negative effects...it's also entirely possible that moving into Phase 2 could have positive effects if the starvation-mode speculation is correct, in fact. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that starting today, I'm going to move into Phase 2 and increase my daily carb limit to 25g. After all, if it doesn't work, there's no law that says I can't go right back to Phase 1 next week!

It's Weigh-In Day Again

Yes, I know, I've been very bad about my blog this weekend. Sorry all, my bad. I did stick to the program and my exercise routine the last few days, and even started working with the hand weight again. It's Monday again, and that means time to weigh in...and it's another 4 pounds this week. What is it with 4 pounds? Anyway, that makes a grand total of 14 pounds in 5 weeks, so I'm averaging 3 pounds a week. I wish it would go faster, but at least it's a steady downward trend, excepting the week I inexplicably gained a pound. I'll be increasing my exercise time to 8 minutes twice a day this week, and I've now got a good stock of fresh salad greens, tomatoes, avacados, broccoli, zucchini, jicama, celery, pea pods, and carrots on hand.

Friday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 5.99g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: 6 oz ham, 1 cup frozen green beans - 10.5g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 2701mg
Veggies: 7.5g
Total: 20.04g

Saturday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 5.99g
Snack: None
Dinner: Bacon, mushroom, and cheese omelette - 7.37g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 2663mg
Veggies: 5.62g
Total: 14.91g

Sunday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: 4 oz ham, cheese stick - 3.38g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Salad - 9.73g
Dessert: None
Sodium: 2878mg
Veggies: 5.81g
Total: 16.66g

I'm sure you've noticed that I've added sodium to the list of items I'm tracking, at least for the time being. Since it's been brought up and I did notice that I was fairly high on my sodium intake a number of days, I decided to keep an eye on it for a while. It's certainly not going to hurt me any to watch it!

My First Venture Out

Hey all, sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I was actually out of the house!

Have you recovered from your shock? Ok, good. On to the rest of the post. Wednesday was a fairly ordinary day, and my ankle was enough better that I was able to do both of my walks, though I was a bit slower than usual. Yesterday, my aunt and one of her friends came up to town, and we all went out shopping and to lunch. I was definitely nervous about spending so much time out of the house, concerned about my stamina, and worried about eating out for the first time since I started my program. All in all, though, I did great!

I was out for about four hours, and while I was exhausted and my knee and ankle were hurting by the time I got home, I recovered much more quickly than I would have a month ago. I guess all this walking is doing some good! We ended up going to a Thai restaurant for lunch. Thai is one of my favorite types of food, and I usually eat dishes with lots of noodles or rice. I was planning to find something like grilled chicken, but I ended up with "Laotian Cabbage Rolls"...which weren't actually rolls at all, but highly seasoned ground chicken with chopped green beans and cabbage triangles to scoop it up with. It was really, really good, and while I obviously wasn't able to get an exact carb count, I know it was low.

Wednesday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad with egg, bacon, pepperoni, cheese, ranch - 5.99g
Snack: None
Dinner: 6 oz ham steak, 1 1/3 cups frozen green beans - 12g
Dessert: None
Total veggies: 7g
Total: 19.54g

Thursday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Laotian Cabbage Rolls - unknown
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Laotian Cabbage Rolls - unknown
Dessert: None
Total: Unknown

I've had a couple of suggestions that my intake seems to be high in sodium, so I've been looking into that over the last couple of days. My diet doesn't seem particularly salty to me, but I'm a bit of a salt fiend, so my opinion isn't necessarily reliable. The RDA of sodium is 2400mg, and it does seem that I've been well over that on a number of days. The main problem seems to be ham. On days when I have ham for lunch or dinner - or both - my salt number is through the roof. I've never really had much of a problem with water retention or high blood pressure, which I believe are the main issues with high salt consumption, but it's certainly not going to hurt me to keep an eye on my sodium intake and try to keep it under control.

Ouch

Wow, just realized I never did my blog post this morning. Sorry I'm so late today! Yesterday was...interesting. It started out perfectly normal, and then I went out to do my morning walk - and had my ankle twist out from under me, causing me to fall flat on the very pointy crushed rock. Yes, I'm basically ok. I ended up with a lot of bruises (of course), a slightly sprained right ankle, and a skinned-up left knee. (Why is it, I wonder, that it's always my right ankle and my left knee? Couldn't it switch around once in a while, for the sake of variety?) The worst part of the whole thing was that I couldn't get up afterward, and nobody was home to help me. I spent at least five very uncomfortable and frustrating minutes squirming around on the crushed rock trying to stand before I finally got Baron to help me. Perhaps I should add "get up after falling on my face" to my list of reasons to lose weight.

Anyway, I was unable to go out and walk in the afternoon because of the ankle, but I did exercise. I'm glad there was no one around to see me, because I'm sure I looked like I was insane, but I turned on the music and danced in my chair for the allotted seven minutes. Yesterday's consumption wasn't really much of an increase in vegetables, because Chad wasn't able to do a grocery trip. I think he's going to go tomorrow.

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: 4 oz deli ham, cheese stick - 3.38g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: 6 oz smoked sausage, 3/4 cup sauerkraut - 15g
Dessert: None
Total veggies: 6g
Total: 19.93g

As you can see, I'm adding a new line to the daily food list for total carbs from vegetables to help keep track of how I'm doing on increasing my veggies to get closer to the recommended 12-15g daily. Hopefully we'll start to see that number increasing over the next few days!

Some Small Changes

I spent a good chunk of time yesterday buried in the Atkins website, trying to find some information on why I'm having such minimal success on my weight loss this time around. While I've been following the program as it's laid out in the book I used last time, it seems they've made some changes to it in the last 6 or 7 years. I was successful on the old program, but I'm going to update my foods to conform a little better to their current recommendations and see where that takes me.

The main difference seems to be that they're now asking for 12-15g of carbs per day to come from what they call "foundation veggies"...list here. Unfortunately, I don't really like about 75% of the vegetables they have listed. All of my favorite veggies seem to be on the no-no lists. I'm also not sure how I'm going to manage to fit 12-15g of vegetables into a 20g per day program when a dinner entree (from the Atkins cookbooks!) is generally running 6-12g. I'm going to give it a try though, and even if I can't make the full 12-15g, I can certainly increase from my current amount. More fresh and frozen veggies also fits right into my goal of eating more natural foods. Hopefully Chad will be able to go to the store today and buy me some vegetables!

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: 4 oz deli ham, cheese stick - 3.38g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce, 1 cup frozen green beans - 11.47g
Dessert: None
Total: 18.4g

Thanks for yesterday's suggestions and comments! As far as increasing my exercise, it's a great idea, but believe me, I'm pushing it now. I'm exhausted and gasping when I'm done with my 7 minutes. I know it doesn't sound like much to most of you, but please remember I basically haven't left my house in about three years. On the few occasions I have left, it was to go sit at someone else's house. There have been periods of a month or more that I didn't even go into the yard. I get tired just standing up long enough to cook dinner!

Imagine yourself being that out of shape...then add a bodysuit with enough weight to make you total 387 lbs. For most of you, that's going to be doubling your weight at the very least, probably an extra 200 lbs or more. That weight is pressing down on your chest and your stomach, making it very difficult to simply breathe. It's forcing your spine into an awkward position. Your feet hurt, your knees aren't sure if they're going to hold you up or not. You can't take a normal stride because your stomach and thighs get in the way. Your upper arms are at a 30 degree angle from your body. Now go outside and go for a walk.

Those of you out there who, like me, are fighting your weight, please, please remember this image when you're tempted to go off your programs, when you don't want to exercise, when you think, "Oh, this one time won't hurt...or maybe two times..." Of course there are special occasions, of course sometimes you're going to splurge! But think before you have that treat. Don't think that it won't happen to you. A number of you knew me 25 years or more ago. Did you expect that athletic young girl to end up like this? I know I didn't. I can distinctly remember saying to someone back then, "I just can't imagine how any woman could get over 150 lbs! It's so easy not to!" Easy. Right. But it is easy...if you keep it under control all the time. From this end of the spectrum, not so easy. Please, guys, keep the image I just painted for you in your minds and don't end up like me. I'm going to do this if it kills me...because it will kill me if I don't.

Another Weigh-In

It's that time of the week again. Monday morning, time for the dreaded weigh-in. After last week's inexplicable gain, I was extremely nervous about this week's results. It wasn't a gain, thankfully. I lost 3 pounds. It's not much of a loss, but anything is better than gaining again! That makes a grand total of 10 pounds for my first month, which is rather disappointing. Certainly it's better than not having lost anything, but 2.5% of my body weight in a whole month isn't much progress. I know I'm doing something wrong, but I haven't the foggiest idea what it is. Anyway, my intake for the last two days...

Saturday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: None
Snack: Cheese stick, 1 oz almonds, hard-boiled egg - 3.56g
Dinner: 6 oz ham steak, 1 1/3 cup frozen green beans - 12g
Dessert: None
Total: 17.11g

Sunday
Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: Salad - 5.74g
Snack: None
Dinner: 6 oz ham steak, 1 cup frozen green beans - 10.5g
Dessert: 1/2 cup sugar-free Jell-O, 2 tbsp cream, whipped - .8g
Total: 18.59g

So I obviously didn't come within a mile of my goal for this month. The goal was to reach 375 lbs by today's weigh-in, and I'm currently at 387. Based on my personal history with Atkins, it was a reasonable goal, but this time around my weight is definitely not dropping as quickly or easily as it did before. I've decided to change the types of short-term goals I'm setting. My first two goals were based solely on pounds lost, and that's really not something that's directly in my control. All I can do is to stay on my diet and do my exercising, and the loss will be whatever my body determines it's going to be. Or not be...

I think that my goals need to be things that are under my direct control, like not cheating, exercising, meeting my carb total, and so on. There's certainly no reason that I can't celebrate milestone numbers of weight loss, but I'm not going to put them on a specific schedule any more, because they're simply not something that I can schedule. Therefore, this month's goal is going to be something completely different. My goal for October will be to walk twice a day, every single day. No getting out of it because I fell asleep, no getting out of it because it's raining, no getting out of it period. It's something that's completely in my control, definitely a goal that I can accomplish, but certainly not easy...especially when it's cold and raining, which it's likely to be. I'll continue to increase my time by a minute per week as well. This week is 7 minutes, and I've survived the first walk at the increased time already this morning!

Questions, Comments, and Topics

Hello all...not much to discuss today, it was a pretty average day yesterday. Got all my meals in except dessert, mainly because I didn't eat dinner until about 10 (cringe). I did do one good thing yesterday. I cleaned out the refrigerator ruthlessly. Anything and everything that's not allowed on my program and not vital to my husband's survival got tossed. The barbeque sauce and the ketchup, which he couldn't live without, made it through the purge. Jams and jellies, sweet-hot mustard, caramel sauce, sweetened cream cheese, and hot fudge are all history, however. It was a difficult process, not necessarily because I wanted to eat the items I was getting rid of, but because they were all "perfectly good". I'm a recovering packrat and throwing away/donating/otherwise getting rid of things that I don't need but that don't technically have anything wrong with them is still tough at times.

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 slices bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: 2 oz deli ham, string cheese, boiled egg - 2.61g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: Bacon, mushroom, and cheese omelette - 7.37g
Dessert: None
Total: 13.53g

So since I don't have anything in particular to discuss right now, I'd like to throw it open to you guys! Is there anything you'd like me to talk about that I haven't been addressing? Are there questions, comments, or topics you've been wondering about? I'd love to hear about them. Leave me a comment below, send me a Facebook email, text me, whatever. Be nice, but don't worry about offending me, it's pretty hard to do. If you ask something I don't want to talk about, I just won't talk about it!

To Err is Human...to Schedule is Divine

Pretty ordinary day yesterday, not great, not bad. I finally hard-boiled some eggs, which I've been meaning to do since I started the program. They'll be handy to have around for snacks and to dice for salads. I did both my walks, but I still didn't get my arm workouts done. Nothing new or exciting about my food intake, either.

Breakfast: 1 egg, scrambled, 3 pieces bacon - 1.55g
Lunch: 4 oz deli ham, string cheese - 3.38g
Snack: 1 oz almonds - 2g
Dinner: 6 oz ham steak, 1 1/3 cups frozen green beans - 12g
Dessert: 1/2 cup sugar-free Jell-O, 2 tbsp cream, whipped - .8g
Total: 19.73g

As to my little reference to a well-known quote in the title of today's post, I'd like to talk a little bit about scheduling. You guys may have noticed that I've been doing quite a bit better lately as far as getting all of my meals eaten and doing my exercising. I certainly haven't been perfect, but I've been better than I was. Part of that is due to the Great Breakfast Experiment, part of it is due simply to becoming more used to the program...but most of it is due to the fact that I've scheduled specific times for each of these items, and I've set alarms for them on my phone. At 8:30, I'm reminded to start cooking breakfast, at 11:00 to do my first walk, at noon to eat lunch, and so on. I lose track of the time very easily...hell, a lot of the time I don't know what day it is! Most of the time, that little nudge is all it takes to get me to stay on track and do what I need to do when I need to do it.

I'm sure that this method wouldn't work for everybody, but most of you know that I love and thrive on scheduling, organization, and pattern. Spontaneity is a dirty word for me. Unfortunately, I've been so constantly exhausted for the last few years that it's been difficult or impossible for me to keep my own schedules...which of course adds to my stress and depression and makes me more exhausted and discouraged. It's a nasty spiral, and one that I'm hoping this program is going to help me to break out of. Breaking out of it should, in turn, help me in succeeding with my weight loss and adding to my motivation and energy levels, putting me on an upward spiral, rather than a downward one. And all because I set an alarm to remind me to make breakfast...